So I go to start up my desktop to play Battlefield 2, and everytime I start it up, doesn't matter what I do, explorer crashes out, the system pretty much turns into a paper weight, and I still can't run around and C4 ppl....WTF?

Anyone have any ideas?

Once my browser opened up to MS' page and said it was hardware (disk drive) but I can't really do anything about that with how it'* acting up.

Should I just re-install XP?

Please don't tell me my hard drive crashed....

Thanks
-nate

First, open your pc and take a look at all the capacitors on your motherboard. Any goo, bulging tops, indications of a leak . Go to http://www.badcaps.net/ they have quite a few pics of what badcaps look like. If you have these you need to replace the caps or the motherboard.

If that checks ok; Go to your hard drive manufacturers website, download and run their DOS level diagnostics. they might have a utility to read the SMART built into your drive; if so use it and see if the drive has detected anything wrong with itself.

Thanks I'll check that out

Dude, hope you get it working. But, if all else fails, try this.

So far everything'* checking out ok.....think I may try a install of XP on top of the current one....That usually fixes everything lol.

You may want to do a "clean" install of XP instead of reinstalling it on top of your existing one. Sometimes problems occur with the latter method. Do you have a good AV program and a spyware program currently installed?